2108 G Street NW, Washington, DC 20052

Thursday, January 19, 2023

Welcome back! Happy New Year and start to Spring 2023!

1955 - "Scrabble" debuts on board game market.

1977 - Snow falls in Miami, Florida. This is the only time in the history of the city that snowfall has occurred. It also fell in the Bahamas.

1994 - Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees: The Animals; The Band; Duane Eddy; The Grateful Dead; Elton John; John Lennon; Bob Marley; Rod Stewart; Willie Dixon; and Johnny Otis.

At 80, the Saxophonist Billy Harper Is Still a Towering Force. The New York Times.

How Noma Made Fine Dining Far Worse. The Atlantic.

This 22-year-old is trying to save us from ChatGPT before it changes writing forever. NPR.  

Image credit: GJ Sevillano

To kick off the new year, we are delighted to spotlight GJ Sevillano, a fourth-year Ph.D. candidate in our department. GJ received his B.A. in Politics and a certificate in American Studies from Princeton University in 2019, and received his M.A. in American Studies from GW in 2021. He grew up in Historic Filipinotown, Los Angeles, California, and is currently conducting dissertation research about Filipinx American foodways. Sevillano explains that his dissertation “aims to analyze the intersections between food, race, gender, sexuality, and colonialism in the context of the Filipino American diaspora.” By studying different novels, cookbooks, recipes, and culinary cultures he is able to unpack how “acts of commensality (procurement, production, consumption, and reproduction) actively shape the formation of Filipino Americaness.” Sevillano stated that he seeks to “understand the cooks as cultural theorists and these gastronomical acts as postcolonial praxis.”

Sevillano’s curiosity about this topic bloomed out of his love for the Filipino American kitchen. He explains that although it was not always a safe space due to the “internalized echoes of unchecked body shaming comments from family members'' and the “sharp pangs of having to go to bed hungry,” the kitchen became a place where he could embrace his individuality and “confront and navigate” his bodily needs and desires. It is important to note that Sevillano is writing this dissertation with and for the Filipino American community and he hopes his research serves as a token of his gratitude for his family and ancestors’ “resistance, survival, and care work.” He hopes his work will allow others to gain a better understanding of how recipes and cookbooks are meant to come alive and tell a story. “I want my readers to be able to walk away from my dissertation with a stronger understanding of the important cultural work of Filipino American cooks/chefs, recipe writers, agricultural workers, digital content creators, and other culinary cultural producers,” Sevillano said. Throughout this experience, GJ has been able to feel closer to his cultural roots and has gained a better understanding of what it means to be Filipino American.

Sevillano will present his research at upcoming conferences including The Global Asias 6 Conference in March 2023, the Association of Asian American Studies Conference in April 2023, and at the Association for the Study of Food and Society/The Agriculture, Food, and Human Values Society in June 2023.

“Stoics on Stuff: Consolations on Attachment and Loss" Professor Nancy Sherman, Georgetown University

When: Friday, January 27, 2023 @ 4:00 pm
Where: Duques Hall, 151

No RSVP required.

Abstract: The ancient Stoics offer lessons for modern resilience. They do so by forcing us to rethink our views on attachment and loss. Pushing the Socratic view to an extreme, the Stoics hold that virtue alone is sufficient for happiness. External goods are “indifferents,” they say, preferred or dispreferred, but themselves not the kinds of things that can make or break our happiness. We may lose our homes and homeland to natural disaster or war, our loved ones to disease and untimely deaths, but for the wise person, they don’t affect happiness in the way that compromises of character can.

The Ethics of Resistance in Global Context

Professor Lucia Rafanelli has organized a speaker series on the ethics of resistance to be hosted at George Washington University in Spring 2023. This series will explore the ethical questions around resisting state power and the power of the international state-system. Topics include the ethics of violent protest, political rhetoric in Native American resistance movements, resistance against immigration enforcement, and Gandhi's theory of satyagraha.

Feb. 14, 12:30-2 pm ET:  Avia Pasternak, Violent Protest and Harm to Police (1957 E St. 602 & Zoom)

Feb. 28, 2-3:30 pm ET: Burke Hendrix, Political Rhetoric and American Indian Political Resistance in Jacksonian America (Zoom)

Mar. 23, 12:30-2 pm ET: Inés Valdez, Immigration Enforcement, Technology, and the Banishment of Politics (Monroe 428 & Zoom)

Apr. 4, 2-3:30 pm ET: Karuna Mantena, Why and How Gandhi Civilized Disobedience (Zoom)

Register to attend in-person or online here!

Emily B. Dufton (MA ’10, PhD ’14) received a $40,000 Whiting Creative Nonfiction Grant for her upcoming book, Addiction, Inc.: Medication-Assisted Treatment and the War on Drugs.

CCAS recently highlighted Interrogating GW, the undergraduate student conference programmed in conjunction with Associate Professor Tom Guglielmo's senior seminar. You can read the highlight here!

Associate Professor Jamie Cohen-Cole recently gave two papers in Germany where he is currently on sabbatical and conducting research. His first paper “Making Meanings: Human Nature and the Future of the Humanities” was presented in September at a conference on “Disciplines in Disarray” sponsored by the Max Planck Gesellschaft. In December, he gave a paper on "Constructivism, Truth, Alternative Facts, and the Psychology of Human Differences” in a workshop series on "Praxiologies of Truth” at the University of Erfurt.

GWU Covid Project has completed its work, with more than 150 oral history interviews with GW students, faculty, and staff. Led by Professor Melani McAlister, all the interviews have been donated to the GW University Archives and will be open to researchers; the first are available here. These are in-depth interviews, mostly conducted by American Studies graduate and undergraduate students, that document the experiences of the GW community over the first two years of the Covid crisis.

Call for Applications: Professor Cohen-Cole is currently seeking a research assistant, located in DC, to conduct library and archival research at GW and off-site locations such as the Library of Congress. This is a FWS position only. To learn more and apply, click here.

Call for Papers: Submissions for the 2023 ASA Annual Meeting are now open! The ASA uses All Academic as their proposal submission and conference management site. Note that submissions close on February 1, 2023. ASA strongly encourages all members to review the frequently asked questions before entering the proposal submission site.

Call for Applications: The New England Regional Fellowship Consortium, a collaboration of 31 major cultural agencies, will offer at least two dozen awards in the 2023–2024 application cycle. NERFC grants support work in a broad array of fields, including but not limited to: history, literature, art history, African American studies, American studies, women’s and gender studies, anthropology, sociology, philosophy, religious studies, environmental studies, oceanography, and the histories of law, medicine, and technology // Deadline: February 1, 2023.

Call for Papers: "Feminist Methodologies in Research on Violence, Displacement, and Power" // GWI's Research Scientist Alina Potts is seeking papers for a special journal issue. Contributions of original research, reflection articles, and case studies, with the central theme of using feminist methodologies to explore issues of violence, displacement, and/or power are welcome // Deadline: March 1, 2023.

Call for Applications: The Society for Historians of the Early American Republic is seeking applications for their fellowship program to foster research on “the rich complexity and enduring significance of the early American republic.” SHEAR will offer two research fellowships to scholars examining Latinx, Indigenous, Asian American, Pacific Island, and/or African diasporic history from 1776 to 1861. Read more here // Deadline: March 1, 2023.

Need Support?

Where can I find more information about GW student organizations?
The start of a new semester is a perfect time to join student orgs. Click here to learn more about different student orgs at GW. 

How do I access my official GW Zoom and/or Webex accounts? Do I have one?
All members of the university community have complimentary Zoom and Webex accounts. Both platforms require your UserID and password credentials to log in.

Like what you see? Have spotlights, kudos, events, or opportunities that you would like to share? We want to hear from you! Navigate to our feedback form using the link below, or more simply, forward your tip to amst@gwu.edu.